Managing Yourself: Making It Overseas

26 July 2010 - Employers often make the mistake of sending star executives overseas on the assumption that they will continue the same exceptional performance in the global arena as they did at home, when in fact they fail because they lack the propensity to learn and succeed in a new and different environment.

Success overseas depends on a global mindset with the three central components of intellectual capital, psychological capital, and social capital. Intellectual capital comprises knowledge of international business and the capacity to learn; psychological capital is openness to different cultures and the ability to change; and social capital is the ability to nurture connections, bring people together, and influence stakeholders who are dissimilar to the executive in terms of cultural heritage, professional background, or political outlook. Each element of the global mindset is defined by three specific attributes, and assessing one's own global mindset requires weighing his or her strengths or weaknesses in those attributes. The key attributes for intellectual capital include global business savvy, cognitive complexity, and cosmopolitan outlook, while the defining attributes for psychological capital are a passion for diversity, a hunger for adventure, and self-assurance. Social capital, meanwhile, is defined by intercultural empathy, interpersonal impact, and diplomacy. With a level of proficiency in these attributes characterized, one can organize a development plan to follow various activities in order to cultivate the three kinds of capital.

Source: Harvard Business Review